


Through Madness We Stand, In Madness We Fall

by Naemi



Series: NCIS Shorts [22]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Alternate Reality: Post-Apocalypse, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Despair, Drama, F/M, Future Fic, Minor Violence, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-06 19:02:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4233198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naemi/pseuds/Naemi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Sometimes,” Abby said, “it feels like you're not yourself. You look the same, but what haunts you seems to have manifested in your eyes, in your very soul.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through Madness We Stand, In Madness We Fall

**Author's Note:**

> [obscure and angst-ridden future scenario; implied post-apocalyptic world; ambiguous ending]

 

Tim stood in the doorframe, forehead and palms pressed tightly against the wood as if it was a barrier for his thoughts. His hands were clutching the edges so hard that his knuckles had gone white, his fingers numb. From beyond the threshold, Abby's constant, heartbreaking sobs reached him clearly, but he couldn't care less. While the old Tim wouldn't have hesitated to console her, the thought of facing her now, possibly touching her, made him retch.

~ ~ ~

“Sometimes,” Abby said, “it feels like you're not yourself. You look the same, but what haunts you seems to have manifested in your eyes, in your very soul.”

Her voice trailed away like the fingertips that trailed down the side of Tim's face and neck.

“Whatever it is, it's dark. Fierce.”

Her hand came to rest above his collarbone, was hesitant to move any further, intimidated by his immobility. She looked up at him with her lips slightly parted. A single tear glistened, trapped, in the swing of her lashes.

“But I'm not scared anymore.”

Tim took a step back, and Abby's hand slid down, too weak to hold on to him.

“What have you done?” His voice was hoarse with suppressed anger.

“What I had to do to save you. Us,” she said with a small smile that read, _You should be grateful and not judge me._

“We can't be saved. No one can be saved anymore. If you didn't notice: the world has gone to hell. There is no place safe!” Tim yelled at her when he wanted to shake some sense into her instead, but until laughter poured out of Abby's mouth, he controlled the urge. That sound, however—too loud in the silence of this abandoned town house and dangerously close to the verge of hysteria—made him snap.

His hand shot forward to grab her hair and pull so hard that she stumbled against him. She looked ridiculously tiny and very, _very_ scared as he jerked her head up, but none of it registered with him. All he could think of was the never-ending cascades of pain that this new world held for its inhabitants, and that Abby, of all people, had fallen prey to the insanity that came with it.

Or maybe he had.

It made no difference.

~ ~ ~

Abby's screams still echoed in Tim's ears when he had long passed the city lines. Leaving her behind tore him apart, but it was a decision he should have made a long time ago. He knew that fear and shame still traveled with him, but not getting his own darkness mixed up with the one that had befallen Abby might hold the chance of survival for both of them.

It might just as well get them killed, but in the end, that was probably one and the same.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for **NCIS Drabble** , challenge #443: Dark.
> 
> Beta'd by the wonderful **Moit** , who also made sure that all characters were returned unharmed.
> 
> [Feedback is love.]


End file.
